Director Anjan Dutt seems to be on an anthropological trip in celluloid. But unlike mothballed academic texts on the study of mankind, his is an artistic inquiry on the life and times of different communities. If The Bong Connection indulged in a fond, irreverent, tongue-in-cheek look at the gone-global Bengali ghetto, then Bow Barracks Forever is an equally fond look at a fast-disappearing community in India. It's a ghetto of another kind, where instead of macher jhol, you can smell wine and cakes in the quaint alleys of the Anglo-Indian colonies that dot almost every Indian city. In Kolkata, they form an entire new heartland that could easily be labelled Little England, a para where London is El Dorado, Cliff Richards is the in-house crooner and Christmas ushers in a season of good cheer, for all and sundry.

If Aparna Sen's 36 Chowringhee Lane was a heartwarming-heartbreaking study in solitude of a single Anglo-Indian, Bow Barracks Forever gatecrashes into the homes and bedrooms of an entire community of Anglo-Indians that has been living as tenants in a red-bricked barrack vacated by the American Soldiers after World War 11. The gora sahibs may have gone, but their colonial cousins desperately hang on to the remains of the day. So much so, their mongrel existence has left them schizophrenic, neither completely Indian nor completely phirang. In Potter terms, they are the original half-blood prince and princesses who build their local bands on terrace tops, while dreaming of making it Beatles' land. And juxtaposed against the battery of dysfunctional youngsters, there is an equally restless dult generation that sees destruction staring into its eyes. Destruction of its dreams, because the English shores never seem near; destruction of their habitat, as new builders try to evict them from this heritage site. But everything's not lost...they still have their trumpets, guitars, home-made wine and cakes and lots of community camaraderie that spills beyond Christmas.

Peter the Cheater, (Victor Banerjee) a veteran soldier who now spends his time duping people, reflects the mind set of this sad yet happy bustee. And keeping him company as the community's cheerleader is the greying Emily Lobo (Lilette Dubey) who never gives up speaking to her son's answering machine in distant England, hoping he'll call back someday. The disgruntled youth find their trauma represented through two characters primarily, Anne (Neha Dubey) the battered wife of an Armenian smuggler and Bradley, her boy-lover who knows the best he can do in new India is to end up as a waiter in Park Street.

Living people, breathing people, Bow Barracks Forever captures this `heritage' community is all its colourful details. A little more attention to production details, (the low cost canvas gets tacky in places) with some cutting edge editing would have made the film a complete winner. Go for it nevertheless to savour an India that might soon disappear.

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Anyone who is remotely familiar with India's Anglo-Indian community on a personal level knows that it is mainstream characterizations that portray the community as "stuck in two worlds" and somehow infinitely confused, that are responsible for maintaining an unfounded stigma on the community.

Unfortunately both Nikhat Kazmi and the film maker have fallen into the same trap. Commentators assume that they have the community all figured out, and then right stories that fall in place with those assumptions.

The real story of the Anglo-Indians is how far they have evolved since India's independence, and their efforts to integrate with mainstream society without losing their unique heritage outright. It is a delicate balance that all of India's smaller communities face, not just the Anglo-Indians. The film is interesting up to a point, but falls victim to its own stereotypes.

However if we do not change as per times, we will be dead like Sanskrit.
If India has anything to do in this world it needs to change and become a true free country.
For freedom we need to pay the price whatever it would be.
Unless we break all the barriers of our current society we will be like Sanskrit.
We like our villages but given the chance we would like to live in cities with regular incomes. What it tells we need to urbanize all the country side and industrilize farming. Alot of changes are required in India soceity.
Hope we'll change and appreciate the freedom of each individual.

Well, its not just a part of India that might soon disappear, but very soon our entire culture that is under rampant threat from westernization.

As a pointer: How many of us can speak fluently in our mother tongue or the language of the Indian state where we are domiciled.

Often the destruction of culture starts with the destruction of the language. English is no doubt the global language today. But does this warrant that we have to relegate our rich Indian languages to the backwaters.

We need to make Indian languages mandatory in all schools across the country and the Universities should be flush with grants for research and scholarships into them.

We just just look at the way other cultures like the Chinese respect their languages.

Just watched the movie yesterday. Memories still fresh. A very good movie showing the real life of a community whose dream hovering at the banks of Tames but legs stuck at real grueling life. According to me the most pleasant aspect of the movie is absent of unnecessary drama and obviously the super hit performance of the legendry Victor Banerjee.

A must watch movie for those who are bored at watching high drama and want to experience something different.